The Hanoitimes - Vietnam authorities are looking into the recent case of some Chinese Chinese tourists wearing T-shirts printed with illicit “9-dash line” map while entering the country.

Earlier on May 13, a group of about ten Chinese nationals landed at Cam Ranh International Airport in Khanh Hoa Province and made their way to immigration, wearing T-shirts featuring the map of China, according to the airdrome’s police unit.

All of these maps included the so-called “nine-dash line”, a cow tongue-shaped imaginary line illegally created by China to claim its sovereignty over about 80% of the East Vietnam Sea, including Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracel) and Truong Sa (Spratly) islands. The group then was requested by functional unit to take off their T-shirts.
The Chinese tourists are confirmed to travel to Vietnam on a tour operated by Aladin Co. Ltd, a travel and trading company based in Khanh Hoa city of Nha Trang.
In a related move, Nguyen Van Tuan, Head of National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) said that the agency has sent document to authority of Khanh Hoa province to solve the case reasonably.
“Vietnam welcomes all foreign visitors, including ones from China. However, tourists to the country have obligation to obey the national laws and regulations”, Tuan said. VNAT also requests local authority to inform travelers as well as travel firms to wholly comply to national regulations. “All the regions, taking lesson from the case in Khanh Hoa, need to take care and control the tourist from their entering to avoid similar incidents from repeating”, the Vietnamese official pressed.
In term of Aladin’s responsibility, Tuan said, the company hasn’t foreseen the possible incidents. He also warned other travel firms to raise awareness and proactively promote and direct foreign visitors to conform to Vietnam current laws.